Sunday, November 6, 2011

After spending several months in Toronto working on her new album (with a guy you may know... Hawksley Workman?) Adaline returns to Vancouver to celebrate the recent release of said CD, joined by a couple more pretty cool acts.

First up was Rococodewho, as I am sure I have said before, has been one of my favourite new bands this year. I've seen them a few times recently, and they were just as good this time, despite Laura's fresh hand injury, having received stitches the day before. As usual, the set was incredibly tight with superb harmonies (including some surprisingly high notes from bassist Shaun Huberts) with highlights being "Empire", which always gets stuck in my head, and the raucous "Blood", which is a great way to end the set.

setlistWild in Waiting, Dreams, Weapon, EJ(ay), Empire, Blood.

In Medias Res was up next and for full disclosure, I went to high school with some of the members, and so saw some of their very early show... and they were pretty much the usual high school band; and since I have not seen them since then, that's kind of how I still remembered them. (Which is my own fault, not theirs.)
Hitting the stage one at a time, with Rob Tornroos from Elias on drums, and lead singer Andrew Lee (not that Andrew Lee) on pedal steel they started with a slow building song. Their sound was a dark, post rock/math rock that was definitely was not bad, but just not necessarily my thing. They are definitely good at what they do, and I liked the slower, more melodic songs, but many songs broke down into a bit of chaos,and those I didn't care for as much.
There wasn't much banter, Lee mumbled into the mic a few times, thanking us and saying since the show had a curfew, they'd just keep playing. But they had a good energy, especially on the more chaotic songs, with Andrew at one point falling over without missing a beat, and a couple times equipment almost toppling.

And finally, Adaline hit the stage, with a backing band that including her her brother on keys and Robbie Driscoll on guitar. She started with "Silent Player" and "Stereo", the first two songs from her new album Modern Romantic. Both -- especially "Stereo", one of my early favourites off the album -- were extremely energetic with her incredibly strong voice driving the sexy electro-pop sound. She also had a great presence, confidently going right up to the front of the stage a few times, when not on keys or synth.
She focused on material from the new album, playing nearly the whole thing throughout the set, with highlights being the driving and quite catchy"That's What You Do Best" as well as the first song of the encore, the soft and beautiful "Cost Is Too High"; after which she was surprised with flowers from her mother, sharing with the audience for the last song, "Sparks".
Even with a minor technical problem with the microphone (that was soon fixed) it was a fantastic set, and I can only hope Adaline returns to call Vancouver home soon enough.